Friday 31 July 2020

Forever Fern for As You See It 231 Design Team Card


This week at  As You See It, we're back to the start of our rotation of challenges, so it's Sketch Week. 



When I saw this sketch, I saw it as a 'something' with a strip sentiment over it. I immediately thought of the large leaf die-cut from the Forever Flourishing dies. Of course, the Forever Greenery suite is my absolute favourite of the 2020-21 Annual Catalogue so it was in my thoughts!


I used the large Water Painter on Fluid100 Watercolour Paper then dripped spots of Daffodil Delight, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler and Calypso Coral re-inkers and let them spread. After drying it off, I cut the leaves.


For the centre rectangle in the sketch, I used one of the panels from the Forever Gold Laser Cut Specialty Paper and backed it with Very Vanilla. The card base and front is Cajun Craze and I've applied my new favourite embossing folder, Tasteful Textile.

The final touch was a bow made from the gold twine that is part of the Forever Greenery Trim Combo.

The sentiment was the first outing of the soon-to-be available Banners Pick A Punch, which easily lets you either fish-tail or arrow head a banner in three different widths. This will be available on 3 August.

We'd love to see how you see this sketch. Visit the As You See It site to see what the rest of the team have done and to enter your project.

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar or clicking on any of products below.

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Thursday 30 July 2020

Nothing's Better Than for HSS 341


I had a quiet afternoon so took the chance to play around in my craft room. For inspiration, I used the sketch at Hand Stamped Sentiments but flipped it to a landscape orientation.
The Nothing's Better Than bundle is a lot of fun, with cute sayings and images based around chocolate, cookies and cocktails - something for everyone! In the past, I've used it for packaging but today, used it to make a card for a fun birthday.


I've stacked the die-cut 'cocktails'. The top one is cut from a piece of Whisper White that has been coloured using Stampin' Blends: Daffodil Delight and Calyso Coral Blends combos.

In keeping with the summer fun vibe, I've kept to citrus colours. I had fun stamping and colouring the cocktail glasses. I sponged a little Daffodil Delight behind them and added in some star (bubbles?) shapes. A little hard to see in the photo because of the reflection but the scallop-edge circle is cut from the new Brass Foil. The Granny Apple Green card front was embossed with the Dainty Diamonds embossing folder.


If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar or clicking on any of products below.

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In Good Taste for PP501

I do like a good sketch challenge and there's a great one this week at The Paper Players.


It's been a while since I got out the In Good Taste suite, which is a shame since it's a great suite. I've used the embossing folder, Tasteful Textile, such a lot but not for this card. Instead, it's the time of the beautiful photographic textures DSP, In Good Taste, to shine along with some of the eclectic stamped images from Tasteful Touches.


After stamping the flower onto the same DSP as the background, I've fussy cut it and raised it on dimensionals. The background foliage and and squares are from the same set. 

The wooden In Good Taste elements add to the design in a quite lovely way, adding both colour and texture.


The sentiment is from Forever Fern, because I wanted a non-occasion specific 'hello' card, and is cut using one of the many useful label shapes from the Tasteful Labels die set. This set bundles with the Tasteful Touches stamp set, so if you like them, it's a good chance to save by getting the bundle.

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar or clicking on any of products below.


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Monday 27 July 2020

Good Morning Magnolia for Retro Rubber 140

This week at Retro Rubber Challenge, we have one of my favourite challenges: a Tic-Tac-Toe. Just choose three elements from any line - vertical, horizontal or diagonal - and use them to inspire your card. Of course, since this is retro rubber, you must use at least one stamp a year or more old and tell us the approximate age of it. 


I've gone for the first vertical line: Die-cut or punch, twine, easel card. 

I've not made a large circular easel card for a wee while and to make it, I had to dig into my retired drawer to find the layering circle set that preceded the current Layering Circles dies. The older set has fewer circles but they are larger. From old, I knew that the largest two are the perfect size for a circular easel card. You can use the Layering Circles dies to make a dinky mini-version, perfect for a baby card.


The two stamp sets are Good Morning Magnolia and Beautiful Friendship. Both of these sets are still available and came out just over a year ago in the 2019-20 Annual Catalogue. The gorgeous bloom from Good Morning Magnolia is a pleasure to colour. In this instance, I used Stampin' Blends because they give such beautiful depth of colour.

Here it is closed up.


I added a double twine bow to draw attention to the sentiment. I used the Stitched So Sweetly dies for the sentiment, the second half of which is stamped on the inside. I chose the Brick and Mortar embossing folder for the background to suggest a garden wall. Other finishing touches included sponging the edges of the embossed circle and the addition of a few of the very pretty new Elegant Faceted Gems.

We'd love to see what you choose from the Tic Tac Toe and what you make of it. Just remember to tell us how old your retro stamp is. 

Visit the Retro Rubber Challenge site and see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry. 

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar or clicking on any of products below.

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Note: The Layering Circle dies used for this card are retired. A smaller version can be made using the Layering Circle dies.